Worth Financial Advisory Group LLC Acquires 137 Shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation $COST

Worth Financial Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) by 31.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 567 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the quarter. Worth Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Costco Wholesale in the 1st quarter valued at $3,461,159,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 418,980.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 2,359,422 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,335,686,000 after buying an additional 2,358,859 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,644,711 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $40,332,515,000 after buying an additional 443,101 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 84.0% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 812,188 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $768,114,000 after buying an additional 370,806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,907,670 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,695,796,000 after buying an additional 191,985 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,137.00 to $1,140.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,130.00 price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,060.00 to $1,025.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,160.00 to $1,050.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,333.00 to $1,418.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,069.58.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:COST opened at $915.95 on Friday. Costco Wholesale Corporation has a 52-week low of $867.16 and a 52-week high of $1,078.23. The company has a market capitalization of $406.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $955.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $971.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The retailer reported $5.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.81 by $0.06. Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.94% and a return on equity of 31.10%. The firm had revenue of $86.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $86.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.15 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Costco Wholesale Corporation will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Costco Wholesale Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.56%.

Insider Activity at Costco Wholesale

In other news, EVP Yoram Rubanenko sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $974.96, for a total transaction of $3,899,840.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 5,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,629,419.04. This trade represents a 40.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Teresa A. Jones sold 600 shares of Costco Wholesale stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $992.05, for a total transaction of $595,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 2,362 shares in the company, valued at $2,343,222.10. This trade represents a 20.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Costco Wholesale

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.